Son of a Submariner! Kefka’s Famous Line in Detail

(Warning: If you’re offended by swear words, turn back now!)

One of these days/years I hope to take a detailed look at Final Fantasy III/VI with a full-blown analysis project, but until then I might take tiny peeks at specific parts once in a while. Today I had the sudden urge to look into the famous “son of a submariner” line that Kefka shouts early on in the game – so let’s check it out!

Basically, Terra, Locke, and Edgar have escaped Kefka and his henchmen. Kefka is really mad and shouts out as they run by on Chocobos:

Final Fantasy VI (Super Famicom)

Final Fantasy III (Super NES)

And here’s the text side-by-side for comparison:

Japanese text

Literal translation

Official translation

ヒーーー くっそー！

Heeeee! Damn it!

Son of a submariner!

このかりは必ず返しますよ！

I WILL repay this favor!

They’ll pay for this…

Kefka starts off in Japanese by making a certain sound of annoyance or frustration – I’m not sure we have a good equivalent in English… maybe something like “Argh!” is the closest thing I can think of, but it’s not quite the same. In any case, this was taken out of the translation, which I think is fine.

The next thing we see is that he swears! In actuality, Japanese doesn’t have swearing quite like we do in English and other languages, so this is a bit hard to explain. I’ve touched on it briefly before in my MOTHER 3 analysis so I’ll skip the details for now, but basically くそ (“kuso”) can run the gamut of “gee wiz” to “darn” to “fuck”, depending entirely on context, the translator’s experience, etc.

So in my sample translation above I have “damn it”, but it can be translated many different ways. In the official translation it looks like it was going to be “son of a bitch”, but it had to get changed slightly due to Nintendo’s content policies. I’d be curious to know if it was self-censored during the translation phase or if it had to be fixed after the fact, I’ll have to ask about that someday. Self-censoring is another topic I should write about someday, actually. It’s a pretty big topic.

Anyway, so that’s the deal with “son of a submariner”! I think the most interesting thing of all is that this little, insignificant, unmemorable line in the Japanese version became an often-quoted, memorable, and somewhat controversial line in English. Man, I can’t wait to dig into this game in more detail someday, particularly to see what Japanese lines turned out really memorable among Japanese fans but not nearly as memorable in English!

Oh, you know what? I just realized maybe I should’ve taken a look at the fan translations and the other official translations of this line too. I’ll probably do that someday, but if anyone can provide more insight/pics for now, share it in the comments 😀

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39 comments

The GBA script is a major rewrite of the SNES script and tries to retain a lot of the more memorable stuff from the original. I’m not sure why this line was changed at all; there was a lot of outcry about it when it came out, despite being so similar to the original.

The GBA version actually references the original line elsewhere, too. There’s a development message found alongside the strings used in Figaro Castle:

Or it could have foreshadowed the underwater portion of the game that could technically be looked at as submarining. Not that I believe that, but if we’re pulling things out of our ass then that’s my input.

The reason why this line became so memorable to English speaking fans of the SNES Final Fantasy III is because of how colorful it was. If it had been a stock swear word, it would’ve been the same as any other line with the same swear and the silliness of it would have been severely downplayed.

…Then again, in the Japanese, Kefka isn’t being silly at all. I wonder, is he ever silly at all? Like, does he ever act like a clown? I remember in the SNES localization, there’s mention of him being a clown. Seeing how he is portrayed in Dissidia, I imagine that he remains eccentric and absolutely nuts, but yeah.

Kefka, from what I remember, was more like a “flamboyant Exdeath” in the original Japanese version. However, Woolsey made him the more colorful villain he’s known to be in the west. Kitase (or Nomura) actually liked that Kefka more, and used it in Dissidia.

That’s actually a good question – I haven’t played the Japanese version in like 10+ years so I don’t remember much off the top of my head, but from what little I saw getting these screenshots it definitely felt like English Kefka seemed a little sillier and crazier. I guess this’ll be a big thing to look out for whenever I do a full look at the game sometime.

It’s hard for me to believe he’s not silly in the Japanese version after seeing the way he acts in Dissidia. Disregarding the dialogue, he still comes off kooky and mad. And that’s another thing. The name for his theme is Dancing Mad, so I think Kefka to some extent is kinda silly in Japanese as well

I hope you take a look at Donkey Kong Country some day. What’s interesting is that it is developed by an English-speaking developer, so rather than looking at a game translated from Japanese, you’d be looking at a game translated from English!

I’ve always liked this line, and every time I play through FFVI (it’s coming to Wii U so that’ll be some number +1 pretty soon) I wonder what it was in Japanese. Thanks for this!

I think one of the reasons it is so memorable is it comes so early in the game, and it comes just as we start meeting the characters, including Kefka. I think it also works, crucially, because it comes before Doma. (In a way it works as a bit of a misdirect for the player as to what to expect from Kefka in the long run. In a good way.)

Figaro Castle had just vanished underground when Kefka said this line. It submarined under the earth. So the line is cute, adds a bit more flavour to a comparatively boring line, and actually makes sense in context. The change in the GBA version makes the feel Woosley was going for with the translation clearer imo, since sandworms are also burrowing creatures. People still mistake both for irrelevant and bizarre lines though, when only the bizarre part is true!

On the subject of Kefka, there’s a cutscene in Dissidia wherein Kefka tells Zidane (referring to Bartz) that “the mouse is SMACK… dab in the middle of enemy territory.” The word “smack” is given its own space in the subtitles and is punctuated by a dramatic zoom on Kefka’s face. Is this some Japanese pun they decided to translate literally?

I looked into this and will probably make a post about it sometime, but the quick answer is that it’s pretty much the same way in Japanese too. It has a weird emphasis on an adjective/modifier for “center”.

the snes rpgone translation translated it as `son of a bitch` i think it is better becouse there weren`t any submariners in that time or in the game. also is it true that Cefca is the japenese way to spell his name?

The “Cefca” spelling is used in the tracklist for the soundtrack CD release. I think it might appear in the game manual as well, not entirely sure. It’s definitely been around since the SNES days, at least.

A fan, who went by the name Lina Darkstar made some nice FFVI translations and had this to say about it which I found very interesting;

(Kefka: “Grrrr– SHIT! I’ll get you for this!”

…which was about what I’d expected, except for one thing. The grammar pattern he’s using there (he says “kaeshimasuyo”) is NOT what fits in context. In fact, the -masu form is polite. And the -yo at the end there is feminine.

So imagine Kefka swearing and yelling that he’ll take revenge, but doing so in a way that’s… somehow… polite and feminine.)

From her description it sounds to me almost like an impossible character to convey good in text. But, strangely enough I do recognize somewhat what she meant when I’m now seeing your take on it. Tomato, do you have this same perception from the Japanese Kefka, with the weird grammar? Curious…

I really need to sit down and look at more of his text, but I seem to recall that he often talks in the polite form sort of how creepy bad guys sometimes talk in polite manners but are actually evil, scary people. The “yo” ending doesn’t strike me as particularly feminine though, it’s hard to put my finger on the type of character it portrays. I want to say it feels to me more like a spoiled guy in a position of power, but that’s reading way way too deep into it. In any case, it doesn’t have a particularly feminine vibe to me, but I really ought to look at more of his text sometime before I can say much more.

Interesting, thanks for your detailed answer considering the little you have to go on! I can definitely see the polite form in your translation, what she described as feminine might just be evil giddiness then. 🙂

Yeah, when I look back at my own stuff from like ten years ago I’m like, “Argh!” too. One of these days I want to do an analysis or two of my own fan projects and pick it apart and show what worked and didn’t work. I’d love to hear some of your own thoughts on the subject sometime too, although I dunno when that’ll be. Could be years from now at the rate I’m going 😛

I’d also like to do an analysis of FFVI, including possibly talking with the translators for each version. If I ever get around to that I’d love to get your thoughts and experiences on it too. Although if you’d rather not that’s okay too. As it is I’ll probably take another 80 years to finish the stuff I’m already working on, heh.

Hey, I’m up for that. The FF6 translation was really my “first” translation in many ways, so it would be good to actually discuss just what was going on throughout. It’s kind of a pity, actually; I’m far better at localization techniques and translation now than I used to be, but I no longer have any real way to do anything in the fan translation community since I have no ROM-hacking skills. But then, I’ve taken a different path with my life since then, so maybe it’s better I leave the task of translation to those who already do it.

I always thought he said “submariner” because the castle literally submerged into the sand. Maybe this was what Woolsey was thinking…?
That idea kind of goes along with “sandworm” too, since sandworm enemies in these types of games burrow into the ground.